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Nasal Sounding G-String

JEDnOH

JEDnOH

Feb 1, 2018
5
3
41
Fremont, OH
www.gbchapel.org
#1
Greetings all -

I have enjoyed reading a lot of TalkBass material as a lurker, but have a question that needs answered so I decided to join.

I have a Squier VM 70's jazz bass. It is my first bass; I learned to play guitar 15 years ago and switched to bass 6 months ago to better serve the church where I play music.

The tone on the E, A, and D strings of my bass is very pleasant. However, whenever I play notes on the G string, the tone becomes nasally and brittle. Here is what I have had done to the bass:

1. Professional crown and level of frets, with full setup afterwards.
2. Adjusted the pickups to Fender- recommended heights.
3. Attempted to use tone control and EQ to "beef up" the sound. When the G string notes sound good, the others then sound too boomy and muddy.

I am using D'Addario Chromes (flatwound) because they are quieter (i.e. less "string zing") in our acoustic church-music setting.

Any suggestions to help with getting a rounder, fuller sound out of the 4th string? I am open to whatever - even if it means new pickups/electronics. Thanks!
 
#2
First suggestion that comes to my mind costs $0: Adjust your playing technique so that you pluck the G string closer to the neck.

It is sometimes surprising how much tonal variety can come from technique.
 
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#3
Have you tried it on different amps, DIFFERENT ROOMS, and different EQ settings ? I can move my amp around in the room and in one spot I get a dead B, another spot I get a dead E on the A string.
 
#4
I will try changing my technique - that is a good suggestion I hadn't thought of.

As for different amps/different spots, I'm limited in that regard because the DI box goes straight to the FOH in our church auditorium. Perhaps I can work with the sound guy to EQ it out of the main system. When I play the bass through the Acoustic B50 bass amp we have in the youth room, I also get a bit of a nasally sound, but not as pronounced.

Thanks for these suggestions; I'll work on them over the next week.
 
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#5
And the answer to the question is:

The sound guy at church had set our digital mixer to have an insane amount of compression on the bass guitar's channel. This is on top of the compressor I (lightly) use to provide a touch more sustain and warmth to my signal. When I cleared the compression on the channel, my bass came alive! Interesting how a really squashed signal produced a nasal-like quality to the G-string. This also helps explain why I couldn't get a very good EQ out of my bass either, or, perhaps I should say, EQ changes didn't seem to make much difference in the sound quality.
 
#8
This is an old post, but I figured I'd share my fix 'cause so many people have issues with the G string especially with narrow necks like on my Stingray. Simply loop a 1/16 inch or so sized rubber band around the G string very close to the bridge, then stretch it across and hook it over the opposite corner of the bridge to keep it in place and to keep it away from the other strings. This will dampen out the twangy harmonics the G is notorious for without much loss in brightness. The more you slide the rubber band up the string and away from the bridge the more the highs will get cut. It was amazing to me how much this affected the tone.
 

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